Geoffrey Cox’s meeting will take place before Theresa May’s discussions with the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar.
Photograph: Will Oliver/Epa

The attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, is to meet his Irish counterpart, Séamus Woulfe,for talks on Friday afternoon before a meeting between Theresa May and the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to discuss the Brexit impasse on the Irish border.

The Irish prime minister will be in Belfast on Friday afternoon for meetings with the five parties that used to sit in the now-defunct devolved government.

He will then return for a dinner with May as the shuttle diplomacy over Brexit continues.

Cox will meet the Democratic Unionist party leader, Arlene Foster, and Nigel Dodds, the leader of the party in the House of Commons, who recently criticised the taoiseach’s warning that a no-deal Brexit could ultimately lead to troops being stationed on the border again.

Dodds told him to “tone down the rhetoric” and that it was time to “keep cool heads”.

Varadkar’s meetings follow similar talks by May two days ago in Belfast. He is expected to brief them on talks he had with EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday, including Donald Tusk, who said there was a “special place in hell” for those who campaigned for Brexit with no plan for a safe exit from the EU.

During his meeting with Cox, Woulfe is expected to reiterate Ireland’s opposition to dropping the backstop, which the Dublin sees as a necessary insurance policy to sustain the ongoing peace process.